Three Twos for Today

Today we celebrate the Twos.
1. TWO weeks ago we welcomed Kathryn as a new member of the Ryan family. It seems like she has been a part of our family for so much longer. Tomorrow is the end of our 15 day appeal period. She is doing amazing things every day. It’s incredible to watch her now as compared to when we met her 6 weeks ago! At that time, she was barely holding onto anything. Now, she tries to hold her bottle, grabs at my shirt and reaches for her toys.

2. Kathryn now has TWO teeth! Sometime between Oct 6th and Oct 23rd she got her first tooth. Yes, that was the time that we were not here with her. However, her second tooth came in yesterday on November 5th. She had a few rough nights, so we thought it might be on its way. Last night before putting her to bed, I looked in her mouth and there it was just peeking through the gums!

3. TWO weeks from today we will be home!! We leave and get home on November 20th. We are so excited to celebrate Thanksgiving with our family and friends and to have Kathryn home. We leave for Almaty on Nov 16th and take Kathryn on her first plane trip. It is only about a 2 hour flight from Astana to Almaty. This will be a good warm up for the long 8 hour flights Xs 2 to get us back to Orlando.

We are thankful to be celebrating these milestones in our trip. As you have read, it has been a very educational trip as well. Most of all, we believe this time with Kathryn has been very valuable to develop our parental bond with her. She definitely seems to know that we are now her parents and the ones who will meet her basic needs. This will make the transition back home so much easier.